OLDER POST CIRCA 2003 – I bolded the creepy insight I had in 2003… yikes!

I’ve been thinking about the future of advertising a lot lately. Specifically, how things are going to change over the next few years; I figured I’d post some of my thoughts on it:

Companies will need to embrace their own core values and focus on building a remarkably customer-centric brand by 2008, or they will face a significant uphill battle.

So, why 2008? It’s somewhat approximate, but here’s the reason: A huge barrage of ads started in 1990. We starting seeing the Internet in it’s early stages, magazines were becoming more ads than content, television became the advertising mecca, etc. Well, people born in 1990, will be turning 18 in 2008. At 18, you’re officially an adult… you have technical free-range to buy what you wish. (Granted, I understand the shopping starts before that, but I feel these 18 year olds are the start to this new culture)

Anyway, these 18 year olds have been inundated with traditional advertising (print, TV, radio, etc) since they were born, they are used to them, they are skeptical of them, and they know how to block them out. Many of them have experienced more non traditional advertising like product placement, sponsorships, etc, and have blocked them out too. This is where many companies will run into a problem; a huge market to reach, but traditional advertising isn’t cutting it.

So, to repeat myself from before, the companies that will survive and thrive, will be the ones who have built a solid customer-centric, and fractal brand by 2008. Advertising won’t be controlled by the companies, it will be controlled by society. Look at social circles- they have grown tremendously over the past 100 years- word spreads amazingly fast, and unless your brand is built solid and can handle it, you’re going to be last year’s news.

I really do believe we’re coming along a major cultural shift in advertising. I’m not sure exactly how it will pan out, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see some big changes.